History of dance

The history of dance may be as long as the history of mankind. We can only guess how dances looked like in earlier epochs.

An early manuscript describing dance is the Natya Shastra on which the modern interpritation classical Indian dance is based.

The early Greeks made the art of dancing into a system, expressive of all the different passions.

For example, the dance of the Furies, so represented, would create complete terror among those who witnessed them. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, ranked dancing with poetry, and said that certain dancers, with rhythm applied to gesture, could express manners, passions, and actions. The most eminent Greek sculptors studied the attitude of the dancers for their art of imitating the passions

Throughout history, people have danced as part of religious rituals and social celebrations. It is traceable through many prehistoric documents. Court dancing has existed perhaps as long as there have been kings and queens. A brief outline might include folk, social, ballroom, religious, and experimental dance forms. One major branch of dance is Theatrical Dance as it has evolved in the Western World. However the dance that we can recognize and know now is ballet, which first evolved in the renaissance of the 1500s in France.


http://www.dawndance.org/history.html

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